Only four folks joined me on Saturday morning for the monthly group walk on Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run Wildlife Preserve. It was a warm morning, but we enjoyed finding 25 species of birds and some other cool stuff. Here are some highlights.
All morning we heard at least two different singing Painted Buntings, but we could never get a look at one. I was only able to get this distant photo of one of them before the group arrived:
Insects were as engaging as the birds this morning. There was this velvet ant we saw near the gate before we started the hike. (Velvet ants are actually solitary flightless wasps.)
In the dense oak-juniper woods east of the driveway we found a young Texas Persimmon tree covered in a light gray powdery substance. When we looked closer we saw it was covered in these small bugs. Thanks to @earthgrazer for the ID on these. They turned out to be Citrus Flatid Planthoppers the feed on the tree's sap, and create that light gray wax as well. If you zoom in on the photo, you can see their yellow eyes!
Near the spring I was excited to find the largest damselfly in North America, this Great Spreadwing which is about two inches long:
And later we found North America's smallest dragonfly, this male Eastern Amberwing which is only about one inch long:
Great Blue Herons are usually a fly-by observation on the Bunny Run, but down on the sandy prairie area we found this one loafing in a juniper tree:
What a fun morning!
Here's our complete bird list.
Here are a few more photos.
And attached are the same photos as iNaturalist observations.
